INDIANAPOLIS — The Indiana Court of Appeals upheld the sentence for Kegan Kline, who appealed after being sentenced to 40 years in a child pornography case.
He appealed the Miami Circuit Court's sentence in January following his multiple felony convictions involving child exploitation and related offenses.
According to court documents, Kline argued that his sentence is "manifestly unreasonable." The state said that was "no longer a valid argument on appeal."
Kline also argued the sentence was unreasonable given Indiana code, which limits consecutive sentences for felony convictions for one episode of criminal conduct. The state argued that while all charges came from evidence found in Kline's possession on Feb. 25, 2017, those images were obtained and saved at different times, making the separate criminal acts. The court sided with the state's argument.
Of note, Kline was not allowed to appeal the conviction — just his sentence. That's because he pleaded guilty to the charges.
Kline was also ordered to serve three years probation as part of his sentence for 25 convictions related to child pornography.
Background on charges
In March 2023, Kline pleaded guilty to 25 charges, ranging from child exploitation and possession of child pornography to obstruction of justice.
He was scheduled to be sentenced that May, but Miami County Circuit Court Judge Timothy Spahr granted a continuance. In requesting the continuance, Kline's defense team claimed he needed time to review evidence Kline said he hasn't seen. The defense then said Kline may want to withdraw his guilty plea based on that evidence.
At the end of May, two new attorneys were announced as representing Kline after his former attorney filed a motion to no longer represent him. Kline's new attorneys informed the court that Kline does not intend to withdraw his guilty plea in his child pornography case.
Kline previously told the judge he thinks he is bipolar and schizophrenic, but he was able to make the clear decision to plead guilty. The judge walked Kline through each charge to make sure he understood what he was pleading guilty to.
After pleading guilty, Kline gave sworn testimony about the offenses he committed. Kline admitted receiving photos of girls under 18 showing their bare breasts, along with other graphic photos. Kline admitted having pornographic images of girls under 12 years old.
Kline admitted using the catfish social media profiles "anthony_shots" and "Emily Ann" to contact his victims. He also admitted that he obstructed justice by deleting social media apps from his devices.
Kline will also have to register as a violent sexual offender when he is released from prison.
Background on the case
The child pornography and exploitation charges stemmed from a search of Kline's Peru, Indiana, home on Feb. 25, 2017, just 11 days after the bodies of Liberty German and Abigail Williams were discovered. The FBI, Indiana State Police and Peru Police Department took part in serving the search warrant, and the investigation was focused on Kline allegedly soliciting underage girls.
According to a probable cause affidavit out of Miami County obtained by 13News, Kline created the "anthony_shots" account approximately six months prior to when investigators interviewed him in February 2017.
He allegedly said he created the account to contact both girls he knew and girls he did not.
Court documents show Kline saying he would talk to girls, even if they were under the age of 16, and that he found them on Instagram and then told them to message him on Snapchat.
Kline allegedly claimed to have received pictures from all of the girls he chatted with and had saved them.
According to court documents, investigators talked to Kline shortly after he returned from Las Vegas. Investigators said he told them he was "f****ed and he should've left." Kline said he had planned to leave the area that day, after his dad fell asleep, according to the court documents.
In that probable cause affidavit, Kline said he received sexual photos and videos of the girls he was messaging.
Investigators seized six devices from Kline, including smartphones, a tablet and an iPod touch as part of the 2017 search warrant on the child pornography case.
The iPod Touch was last used in May 2015 and contained sexually explicit images of children, according to court documents. Locations for some of the images came back to Hammond or Royal Center, Indiana.
One iPhone, last used in May 2015, contained sexual images of girls around the age of 14. The geo-location on the images came back to cities in Indiana, including Bunker Hill, Galveston, Indianapolis, Kokomo, Monterey and Royal Center.
A Samsung Galaxy phone, last used in June 2015, contained sexually explicit images of children between 12 and 17 years old.
Another iPhone investigators found contained sexual images of children between 12 and 17, adults involved in sexual acts with children between the ages of 3 and 11, and images of drugs and Kline with a black handgun. That phone was last used in November 2016.
The tablet was last used in March 2016 and showed conversations on Facebook Messenger and the user suggesting the conversations be moved to Kik Messenger or Snapchat, according to the probable cause affidavit.
Another Samsung Galaxy phone recovered was factory reset on Feb. 23, 2017. A factory reset essentially wipes all user data from a device. Investigators were able to get information on the device after the reset. It included discussions about meeting people in Las Vegas and prostitution.
On Feb. 27, 2017, Kline contacted police, claiming he had located his iPhone 5. Investigators said they found images of females posing nude, but investigators could not determine their ages. Investigators also found much of the data from Facebook, Instagram, MeetMe, Snapchat and Twitter had been deleted.
A review of the phone found that hours after police released him the day they searched his home, Feb. 25, 2017, he had uninstalled and deleted Snapchat and Instagram. The following day, MeetMe was uninstalled and deleted. The browser search history had also been deleted the morning of Feb. 27 before the phone was turned in to authorities.
Police have previously questioned Kline about whether his father had access to his phone or the account. Kline has said he would not let his father have access to his phone for long periods of time.
Police believe Kowalski's teen modeling photos of police officer Vincent Kowalski were taken and used to catfish young girls. He said his photos have been used on fake social media accounts since 2014.
"You just search my name, there's a hundred accounts, fake accounts, of me," Kowalski told 13News in December 2021.